Page 55 of Kissed the Mark
“No, you goose. I care whatyouthink.” Leandra squeezed my hand. “As for acting lovestruck, well.I enjoyed myself, at least. I do like you, quite a bit. It’sprobably obvious but I’ve been drawn to you for a while now.”
How long is a while?But I had toomuch pride to ask an indulgent question like that, so I didn’t.“Hm.”
We sat in companionable silence for sometime, our fingers still interlocked even when it was just a littletoo warm and our skin became sweaty. And then there was a knock onour hut, shattering whatever peace we’d achieved.
A wolf I didn’t recognize popped her headin. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said, making mentalnote of our affectionate body language. “There’s a witch in thewoods demanding we hand over the vampire.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Mob in the Woods
AFTER A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF arguing, I convincedLeandra to stay behind while I checked out the situation. Thewerewolf who told us that “a witch” had been demanding her turnoverwas lying: a number of flashlights scattered light franticallyamong the trees, belonging to people with weapons ranging fromfangs to knives to in one case, definitely a very real-looking gun.An actual mob. Never in my life had I seen a group of supernaturalsworking together as cohesively as this one: Francesca Gallo stoodat the front with a megaphone, demanding that the Woods Pack comeout and return Leandra, wanted for murder. Griselda stood at herside like a statue, an undying support system any couple would belucky to have. What skin in the game they had when it came toseeking justice for Mateo Rivera’s not totally undeserved deatheluded me. Just an excuse to come after her for threatening them, Ithought angrily. And they were absolutely surrounded by otherwitches, by werewolves—I recognized the bounty hunter Drew amongthem and flinched—and by vampires, though not Patricia herself.
The whole reason the mayoral council had thebounty hunter system in the first place was to avoid situationslike this, where all of us ganged up on someone. The fact that theyhadn’t been able to stop this crowd, or maybe even contributed tothe arrival of everyone in the woods, was a testament to howstrongly they wanted Leandra back. I’d never seen anything like it,and I could’ve sworn there had been more severe cases in town thanone vampire who had happened to kill another in a fair fight inpublic.
I pulled the trees closer to each other tohide myself as I headed back. Leandra looked up at me expectantlyfrom next to the fireplace, the embers going out without being keptup.
“They’re going to put up a bounty for you,”I said with confidence, “and in the meantime there is a whole mobof supernatural creatures out there. Francesca Gallo’s leadingthem. There’s witches, wolves, vamps.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “How wouldthey know to find me here?” Tears welled in her eyes. “Is nowheresafe?”
There was another knock at the outside ofthe hut. Leandra and I froze, halfway between answering and runningfor our lives. “It’s Melanie,” the voice said.
I let her in and slid the door quietly shutbehind her. “What are we doing here? Where does the Woods Packstand in regards to Leandra?”
Melanie’s eyes widened at my demands. Shewas so young. “I asked Delilah. They have their honor to thinkabout,” she said, “but I don’t know if they’ll take on all ofMayfair by themselves, especially other wolves.”
I made note of the fact that she saidtheyinstead ofwe. “Where do you stand?”
“You saved my life,” she said to Leandra.“Or you gave me the option I needed to come here. And everyone’sbeen so kind.” The younger girl sniffed. “They’re going to fight,is what Delilah said. They’ll try to get them to go away, to thinkyou’re not here and that the others are infringing on ourterritory. And if that doesn’t work, they’re going to have Leandrarun away, with my help.”
“Run away?” I asked. “After all this?”
“It’s okay, Olympia,” Leandra said. “I’llfigure it out.”
I didn’t want to run. “It’s just amisunderstanding,” I said. “They don’t know that you didn’t killthat werewolf and that Mateo was guilty of it.”
“If it’s a misunderstanding, it’s adeliberate one.” The vampire took in a deep breath. “Even so, whywould the witches be involved? They’re just pissed that I used themfor my scheme.”
“What are the odds of them finding your baseif no one comes forward to them?” I asked Melanie.
“The werewolves will find us eventually.Some werewolves from other packs have been here before. It’s not asisolated as it looks, and they can smell us better than the otherscan.”
“I want to help you scare them off,” I said.“I can make nature into a weapon. Have a tree step on people orsomething.”
“This isn’tLord of the Rings,”Leandra snapped. “They know you’ve been around me, and they knowthat if the greenery starts talking back you’re involved in allthis.”
“Am I not?”
“Why would we want them to know? One of usshould be safe,” Leandra argued.
Melanie bit her lip, assessing us. “Olympia,if you want to come with, I’m sure the help would be appreciated.We’re going to attack them with as few casualties as we can.” Therewas a shouting from outside the hut. “We don’t have much time. Meetme outside after.”
“After what?” I asked, but she was alreadygone.
“After we say our goodbyes, presumably,”Leandra said.
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not sayinggoodbye. I’m going to fight them and if that doesn’t work, we’regoing to run away.”
